Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Summoned To Central ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Three of the men led the way into the woods behind the building while I made it as difficult as possible for the one that had me slung over his shoulder to keep up. They obviously weren’t prepared to take a hostage and had to scrape around for something to bind my hands with. They left my legs free, eager to get away before they were caught. I guessed they were taking me to their hideout, and they had long since tied cloth around my mouth to stop my screaming.

After a while we came to a hill, and the men began to descend. I started to kick even harder and finally managed to hit my captor square in the crotch. He dropped me and fell to his knees, howling in pain.

I started to scramble up the hill, two of the men pursuing me. “You little bitch!” one of yelled from behind.

A sharp pain in my leg caused me to halt my ascent up the hill, and I looked down to a see a dagger stuck in the flesh just above my ankle. I struggled to get up, but collapsed again in pain. The man who I guessed had thrown the knife had caught up with me by now, but instead of reaching for me his eye caught something behind me and he hurriedly pulled out another knife, a little longer than the last one. He brought it up just in time to block an attacking blade, stopping it inches from his face.

The attacker leapt in front of me and I quickly saw it was Ed. I didn’t think he could’ve looked any angrier than he already did, but when he glanced down and saw me yanking the bloodied knife out of my leg with my wrists still tied together, the look on his face proved I was wrong.

“You’re going to pay for that,” he sneered as he slashed at the man once again, this time slicing his shoulder. He grabbed the wound in pain and Ed kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. The other three men were now charging at us, and Ed quickly slammed his hands to the ground, creating a fissure that spread underneath all four of them. It expanded before they had a chance to move out of the way, and the entire group fell into the crevice. They fell for a long time before I finally heard them hit the ground with a sickening thud, and I didn’t have to see the bottom to tell Ed had made it as deep as possible.

Ed quickly turned back towards me, untied my hands and undid the cloth around my mouth. He took of his jacket, transmuting it into one long strip of cloth. He began wrapping it around my leg. “You sure have a knack for getting yourself into trouble lately.”

I winced as he wrapped the wound. “Well, lucky for me, you have a knack for showing up just in time to help.”

“Even so, let’s try not to make this a regular thing, alright?”

“Well excuse me for trying to stop Kimbley and save Mustang,” I quipped.

Ed looked at me with mock disappointment. “Marie, why‘d you go and do that? We could have finally gotten rid of him.”

I scowled at him. “Ed, don’t even joke about that. I take it he’s okay, right? How‘d you guys get out of that?”

He tied off the bandage. “Yeah he’s fine. But before I tell you I wanna know what happened before I showed up.” He reached out a hand to me. “Can you stand?”

I tried and ended up just embarrassing myself, grabbing Ed for balance as I stumbled from the pain of putting weight on my injured leg. He put his arm around me to steady me, and I looked up at him from where I clutched his shirt for support. “I sure as hell won’t be able to walk.”

He chuckled and bent down, keeping his hand around my shoulders and slipping the other under my legs, lifting me up. It was the same way Envy, in Ed’s form, had held me before, and I shuddered at the memory.

But this time I knew it was him, and I was grateful it was dark enough outside to hide the blush on my face.

“Ed, you don’t have to…”

“Don’t worry about it. So did you find out what Kimbley wanted?”

I told him that Kimbley was after Mustang and wanted information on Marcoh’s location. I described what happened before he got there, how I had crawled through the vents to get to Mustang.

Ed took on a worried expression at this news. “Damn, now Kimbley’s trying to make a Stone too?”

“Think he’s working with the homunculi?” I asked him.

“It’s possible. They could be bribing him to get one made for them or he might just want it for himself. Who knows what’s going on in that guy’s mind.”

“Well I for one don’t wanna know.”

“I don’t think we’ll need to worry about it, at least for now. I managed to put Bald out of commission and held Kimbley back long enough for Mustang to get his gloves back, then he torched both of them. I made sure they couldn’t get away while Mustang called for backup and then I came after you.”

I remembered what I ‘d been meaning to ask him this whole time. “By the way, why did you come back? There’s no way you could’ve made it all the way to Central, as fast as you got back here. And where’s Al?”

He laughed. “It’s really weird, actually. We were sitting in the train and I just couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. The more I thought about who we were dealing with, it seemed to me like they’d be after Mustang more than anyone else. He’s given both of them a lot of trouble in the past. I told Al to go on ahead and I got off the next stop and came back. He should be back once he finds out nothing‘s going on up there.” His looked turned sour. “Somehow I knew you’d get yourself wrapped up in all this and I figured Mustang wouldn’t be able to help you if you got into trouble. And what do you know, I was right.”

“For once I’m glad you didn’t trust Mustang to handle things,” I replied.

Eastern H.Q. came into view and we saw Mustang running towards us. “Speak of the devil,” Ed said.

He reached us looking more disheveled than ever. “Good, you found her.” His eyes moved to my leg, where the blood was starting to soak through the cloth. “What happened?”

Ed pushed past him. “She cut her leg. A doctor didn’t happen to come with the police, did they? By the way, those men are trapped back in the woods and need to be picked up.”

I groaned when Ed mentioned the doctor. “Can’t we just bandage it up? I don’t want to see a doctor again.”

Ed shook his head and continued to head towards the building. “The cut’s too close to the tendon in your ankle, and it‘s deep. I want to make sure it heals right so you can walk soon, I’m not going to carry you everywhere.”

I folded my arms and scowled. “Well there’s genuine concern for you.”

Ed grinned. “Am I sensing some sarcasm? Come on, I’m just kidding Marie.”

As luck would have it a doctor was there, and he cleaned the wound and stitched it up. The stitching hurt like hell and I squeezed Ed’s hand to keep from crying out.

To my dismay the doctor ordered me to use a crutch for at least the next week, so that the wound would heal faster and would have less chance of reopening.

After everyone was gone and Kimbley and Bald were carted away, Ed, Mustang and I all breathed sighs of relief.

Ed looked smugly over at Mustang. “See what would’ve happened if I’d followed your orders? Didn’t take me too long to realize you’d had the location all wrong.”

Roy glared at him. “You acted on a hunch that happened to be right. You agreed with me at first, remember? That’s why you went in the first place.” He stood up and walked towards the door. “The point is, everyone’s safe thanks to me. You wouldn’t have even known about this if I hadn’t have told you.”

Ed stood up and took a step towards him. “If you hadn’t have told me, I would’ve been here to help from the beginning!”

Mustang looked as if it was all he could do to keep from strangling Ed. “You probably would’ve slept through the whole thing - “

“WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!” I was standing now, leaning on my crutch. “You’re acting like little kids! Stop arguing and just be glad we all made it out alive!” I made my way to the door, ready to go to bed and forget about this whole ordeal. “I can’t believe you can argue after all that…” I continued to mumble about how stupid men were - not that those two could really be considered men when they acted so immature - until I reached my room and collapsed on the bed.

Despite how tired I was, sleep would not come. My mind kept wandering to Ed, his expression when he saw I was hurt, and then how he carried me back in his arms. I remembered how safe I had felt in those arms…

I shook my head, as if doing so would get rid of my momentary infatuation. What was I thinking? I was acting like a ditzy school girl with a crush. Not that I was admitting that I had one, of course. I decided I was just tired and not thinking straight, and tried to go to sleep.

Sleep finally came, but didn’t last long as I was woken up by someone banging on Ed’s door next door. Some brief words were exchanged, and then I heard my door slowly opening. The silhouette in the door told me it was Ed, and I covered my head with my blanket when he turned the lights on.

“Off,” I groaned, pulling the blanket tighter around me.

I heard footsteps coming toward the bed and Ed sat down on the edge.

“Haven’t you heard of knocking?” I asked grumpily.

“Sorry. I really didn’t want to wake you up but Al just called from Central. He wants us to come right away.”

I pulled the blanket down just below my eyes, blinking at the light. “Why can’t this wait until morning? I’m so exhausted.”

“Technically, it is morning, and Hawkeye told me it sounded urgent.”

I sighed and blew a stray strand of hair out of my face. “Well if it’s for Al, I can’t really say no now, can I?”

He smiled and grabbed my suitcase, his own already sitting by the door. “The train leaves in fifteen minutes, so let’s get going.”

I reluctantly shoved the blankets off me and sat up in bed to put my shoes on. I slowly stood up to see if my leg felt any better, and ended up falling back down in pain and sighing in disappointment. “I hate using that damn crutch.”

Ed walked over and bent down, his back to me. “Get on.”

The offer was tempting, but I was embarrassed at the idea of him having to carry me again.

“Ed, you can’t carry all that stuff and me.”

Still kneeling, he turned his head to the side, so that one amber colored eye peered up at me beneath a cascade of blonde hair. “Of course I can. Now get on, if you walk we’ll miss the train.”

I was actually relieved that I wouldn’t have to walk, and his voice told me that arguing would do no good, so I complied. I got on his back and put my arms around his neck, and at that moment Major Alex Armstrong burst through the door. Even though I saw him often at H.Q., I could never get used to his enormous size and impossibly huge muscles. He was almost three times as big as Mustang was, and boasted a blonde moustache and an air of self-assurance that followed him everywhere he went.

“Edward! I heard you were going to Central, do you need any assistance? An escort, perhaps?” His gaze fell on me, which always made me nervous. “Marie! I heard what happened, are you alright?”

Ed and I both winced. He was a nice guy, but a little eccentric, to say the least.

I smiled nervously at him. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just going to have trouble walking for the next week or so.”

He walked over to our bags and picked them up like they weighed nothing. “Well then, you must not walk to the station, and Edward can’t carry all of this. I can carry Marie as well, Edward.”

Ed apparently felt me flinch, and I was overcome with relief when he answered, “No, I’m alright. Thanks for helping with the bags, though.”

We made our way to the station, listening the whole time to Armstrong ramble on about his ancestral heritage and his illustrious family name. I couldn’t see Ed’s face, but I’m sure his expression revealed extreme boredom and annoyance. Listening just made me all the more tired, and I leaned my head against Ed’s shoulder and closed my eyes.

After what seemed like hours - not that I had really minded it, but I felt sorry for Ed - we reached the station and Armstrong quickly got our tickets for us, led us inside the train and set our luggage on the rack, Ed and I just standing there awkwardly as he did everything for us. He finished and turned to us, a look of concern on his face, and asked, “Are you certain you don’t need an escort? You three always manage to get yourselves into trouble…”

Ed answered without hesitation, “You’ve done enough all ready! We’ll be fine, really.”

“Thanks for the help, though. We really appreciate it,” I added. He was a pain at times, but he had a good heart and was always willing to help. I didn’t want him to think we didn’t appreciate the offer.

He nodded and exited the train, waving and smiling at us through the window and attracting a good number of stares from passersby. We returned the gesture, but both slumped down in our seats, sighing in relief, when he was out of sight.

“That was a close one,” said Ed.

“Yeah,” I replied, trying to stifle a yawn. “He means well though.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “I am never going to be able to sleep.”

Ed stood up and got something out of his suitcase, and when he sat down again I saw it was a pack of cards.

“Want to play?” He eyed me slyly. “Or are you scared to play me by yourself, since you’re always cheating and helping Al?”

I tried to mask my guilt with the most innocent look I could conjure. “What? I don’t do that!”

“You mean there’s no reason you always decline an invitation to play, you always sit close enough to me so you can see my cards, and Al is always glancing over at you?”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so I grabbed the deck and started to deal. “Like I‘d be scared to play you. Bring it on, shorty.”

He twitched and glared at the height reference, but with apparent difficulty restrained himself beyond that. “You’ll pay for that.”